A lot of that criticism though also comes from Abrams and his decision to just not use anything from TLJ. It wouldn’t have felt like placeholder or filler if the liberated casino planet came back in RoS as a major ally, or if Luke’s force ghost continued to teach Rey, etc. It’s like if RotJ ignored the ESB and said Vader actually wasn’t Luke’s father and Han broke out offscreen and Lando wasn’t ever seen again.
A lot of that criticism though also comes from Abrams and his decision to just not use anything from TLJ. It wouldn’t have felt like placeholder or filler if the liberated casino planet came back in RoS as a major ally, or if Luke’s force ghost continued to teach Rey, etc. It’s like if RotJ ignored the ESB and said Vader actually wasn’t Luke’s father and Han broke out offscreen and Lando wasn’t ever seen again.